


hold on to me (i'll keep you safe)

by HeavensArcher



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, I mean it's 500 words it's more a ficlet isn't it? drabbles are 100 set?, Prison Escape, do you trust me?, eh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 04:51:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13674636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavensArcher/pseuds/HeavensArcher
Summary: Caleb and Nott met in a cell in a village. Escaping seemed a lot easier when they didn't think about their escape leading to the streets being inundated with guards.(AKA the first time the father/daughter disguise was used)





	hold on to me (i'll keep you safe)

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from tumblr: "I trust you"  
> thanks enabler readbythestarlight  
> tumblr: heavensarcher

Breaking out of prison had seemed easier when they were just thinking about the prison. Noticing the other cellmate probably wanted out as badly as he did and coming to an uneasy alliance was relatively easy. Nott, the goblin girl, stealing the keys from the drunk warden as he stumbled past was easy. Summoning Frumpkin to check ahead for any guards while Nott led them around any obstacles was….a little harder as she’d clearly never lead anyone without vision or hearing around before but they’d done it.

Now, however, they were in a shadowed alley with no real exit crouching behind some rubbish while the streets flooded with a seemingly endless stream of guards looking to kill, rather than recapture.

Nott coughed slightly, “…what do we do now? Are we splitting up?” Caleb glanced down at her and was struck by a strange feeling. One that said he didn’t want the girl out of his sight. She’d been the one to help clear his lungs, that offered directions when he stumbled through the pitchblack cell. He’d held her hands as she scratched and clawed at her arms because of an “itch” she refused to really describe. It was the most someone had offered him in awhile and the idea of leaving her to her own devices made him…uneasy. For once he didn’t want to take the cowardly, “every man for himself” approach he was becoming so used to.

He closed his eyes and breathed, evaluating his levels of exhaustion and just how much magic he thought he could get away with. He could probably…yes…yes, that could work.

He turned and knelt in front of the little goblin girl and took her hands. “Do you trust me?”

Nott’s yellow eyes widened slightly and she glanced to the side, thinking. Within a moment she had turned to face him again and was nodding determinedly. “I trust you.”

Caleb let a small, but genuine smile grow on his face. “I’m going to cast a spell. I’ll look like someone else, and we’ll pretend you’re my daughter.” He passed her a broken porcelain doll face that he saw in the rubbish, holding it over the bottom of her face briefly. He reached out and tugged her worn cloak’s hood over her ears and the rest of her face. “We’re going to get out of here together, so you just stick with me. Ok?”

At the mention of magic, Nott’s eyes had lit up, like they did the first time his broken and exhausted body had summoned lights to dance through the air when the coast was clear. Like they had when Frumpkin snapped into existence and wound himself around Nott’s shoulders. Caleb smiled, and promised himself that they were just the first of many tricks he would show the girl.

He gathered himself and whispered a few words, gesturing over himself and feeling the illusion settle into place. He turned to the wide-eyed Nott and made a gesture with his hands. Would it be ok to pick her up? Did her trust extend to that? She gingerly stepped forward and allowed herself to be picked up, moved around til she was sitting comfortably on his back, curled into his neck with her hands tucked into the fabric of her cloak. It felt far more natural than either had expected.

They made their way out of the alley, and into the village.


End file.
